


I'll Count the Hours

by virgo_writer



Series: Song of Myself (i contain multitudes) [1]
Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arctic, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 14:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17265476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virgo_writer/pseuds/virgo_writer
Summary: In an unusual bout of decisiveness, Leonard decides not to join Sheldon and the gang in their search for slow-moving monopoles. AU.





	I'll Count the Hours

Improbably, it only takes Leonard seven hours and forty-five minutes to come to a decision.  This is an unusual bout of decisiveness that does not go without comment from his companions.

“I just know I’d rather be in Pasadena with Penny,” he tells them as they touch ground in Anchorage, Alaska.  His candour is equally surprising – no appeals to work that needs done or concerns about the security of their apartment. 

(In another universe it takes him four weeks to ruminate over possibility and even then he only ever says these words in his head)

Sheldon is all screech and Texas twang in his reply.  “Leonard, we could be on the brink of an important scientific discovery,” he intones, his mouth twisted in an expression that is half sneer and half gawking surprise.  He is unable to fathom why he would need to explain something so obvious, but continues all the same. “One that could change the way we understand the very nature of the universe.”

Raj is more supportive, his eyes soft as a lays a hand on Leonard’s shoulder.  “Sheldon, you can’t stand in the way of true love,” he says, impassioned.  “This could be Leonard’s moment with Penny, and if he doesn’t take it he could lose her forever.

“Science can wait. Love may not,” he finishes in a low meaningful tone that was completely wasted on Sheldon.  He was channelling his best love guru, and his tall beanpole of a friend is completely unmoved.

Sheldon scoffs. “A false equivocation,” he says, sounding utterly bored.

To Leonard he says, “If you think that _love_ ” – his words drip with derision here – “is comparable to unlocking the secrets of the universe then perhaps it is better you return to Pasadena.  Your commitment to the scientific integrity of this project is being brought seriously into question.”

Howard, too, is supportive. Somewhat.  He is cynical, but he doesn’t antagonise the same way Sheldon does.  “You know if I thought I had an in with Penny I’d be heading home in a heartbeat,” he says, grinning and waggling his eyebrows.  But then he becomes serious, unexpectedly taking the middle ground and speaking as the voice of reason.  “But Sheldon’s right – we could be a part of something important here.  You gotta be sure or you could end up regretting it later.”

“This is important too,” Leonard answers in an uncharacteristically decisive tone.  “If I don’t do this – if I let this moment with Penny pass me by – I’ll always regret it.”

* * *

 Decision made, Leonard returns to 2311 North Los Robles Avenue only twenty-nine hours and seventeen minutes into the two-thousand-one-hundred-and-ninety hours intended absence.  He is alone and looks exactly the same as he did when he left the apartment less than two days earlier.

“I got you this,” he says, showing Penny a snowflake preserved in resin that he had picked up at the airport gift shop.

Penny’s eyes light up and she bestows him with a genuine, grateful smile.  And when he kisses her he has no regrets at all.

* * *

It takes four-hundred-and-ninety-nine hours for their relationship to fall apart.

Things begin well enough.  But they are both aware of the unspoken strangeness of the two of them on their own, but together.  Without Thai food night and HALO and anything-can-happen Thursday, they have nothing but each other.

It doesn’t take long for the cracks to appear.

The fight starts on a Wednesday morning, but lingers and festers until the evening. It starts over some trivial, innocuous thing that would have been ignored if things weren’t already so strained.  Neither of them would ever remember what had instigated the fight.  Only how it ended.

“You have no idea what I gave up for you,” Leonard caws loudly, words escaping him before he has the cowardice or sense to take them back.

Penny’s eyes are blazing with heat, her mouth a thin line of disapproval.  “I didn’t ask you to,” she retorts.  “I would have waited for you.  I didn’t ask you not to go.”

But Leonard wasn’t getting it – they were speaking at cross-purposes.  “I did it for you,” he says, repeating the sentiment more gently this time.  “Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

Penny is unmoved, or at least, unmoved in the direction he wanted.  Instead of sympathy or guilt, it only spurs her anger.

“Am I supposed to give you points or something?” she asks sarcastically.  “Would you like me to shower you with the praise you never got from your mother?”

A low blow, but it is precise.  Leonard flinches and takes a step back.

“I didn’t ask you not to go,” she says again, sounding pained.  “This isn’t what I wanted – this wasn’t my choice.

“You chose this,” she says, pain turning to anger.  Her next words are scathing.  “You basically abandoned Sheldon at the top of the world, for what?  So you could sit around being miserable about what you’re missing and make me feel like I have to just put up with it because I’m the reason you’re here.

“I’m done,” she says. 

And after just four-hundred-and-seventy hours, they really are.

* * *

 After one-thousand-five-hundred-and-twelve hours, Sheldon’s funding is cut.

It is a combination of lack of results and Sheldon’s boorish nature.

It is fortuitous. 

Howard and Raj were about eight hours away from finishing the crossbow.

The snowstorm (the one that cut the power on the night that was never spoken of in another universe) was only one-hundred-and-twenty-eight hours away. 

And so they all return to the Los Robles apartment after one-thousand-five-hundred-and-forty hours of absence, the three men all looking slightly worse for wear.  They have begun to grow beards and let their hair grow a bit, but they are still three-hundred hours away from looking like oddly dressed bush men.

Sheldon goes immediately to his 0-0-0-0, waiting for the equilibrium to set in.  He is disappointed to be returning so soon, but even he can admit that there was nothing to be gained in prolonging their stay in the Arctic. They had a null result (except for an unexpected blip caused by the electric can opener that was possibly worth some exploration, but not by Sheldon) and a further six-hundred-and-fifty hours was not going to change that. He would spend the rest of his summer on more fruitful endeavours.

And yet, despite the rationalisation he still feels unsettled.  He catalogues his emotions, and knows that it is not the withdrawal of funding that is making him feel this way. He had been feeling unsettled for one-thousand-five-hundred hours, a feeling that manifested in rigidity and idiosyncrasies that had made his presence increasingly unbearable for Howard and Raj.

“You’re back,” Leonard says enthusiastically as he enters the room.  He is dressed in a blue button down and wearing an offensive amount of cologne.

Howard, who had thrown himself down on the other end of the couch as soon as they entered the apartment, perks up a little at the sight of him. “Off to romance the fair maiden across the hall?” he asks smarmily.

Leonard smiles awkwardly, adjusting his cuffs for something to do and to avoid meeting his friends’ eyes. “Actually, I’m seeing someone else.”

“You sly dog!” Howard cheers.  “Way to hit-it-and-quit-it.”

“It just didn’t work out,” Leonard protests, sounding glum rather than triumphant.

Raj offers sympathy from his place at the open fridge. He just wants to eat something that isn’t freeze-dried or processed beyond all recognition or tasteless aeroplane food.  “I was so sure it was going to work out for you two crazy kids,” he says, perhaps sounding more sad for himself than for Leonard. After all, if things couldn’t work for Leonard and Penny, what hope was there for the rest of them?

Leonard shrugs. “It took awhile, but I realise now that Penny and I are better as friends than anything else.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” he says, changing the subject.  A broad smile replaces the grim, slightly wistful look he had when he spoke of Penny. “I have a date with a hot burnet TA who happens to think that experimental physicists are the rock stars of the hard sciences.” With that said he leaves, grinning to himself all the while, and puts Penny out of his mind.

The others mill around the living room in silence for a few moments, but with Leonard gone Raj and Howard feel the imperative to leave.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Raj says, sighing forlornly at the barren fridge, “but I need to not be around the two of you for the next few days.”

“Agreed,” Howard says quickly, throwing himself out of the couch and b-lining towards the front door.  “I need to go somewhere with a lot of women in a lot less clothes.”

Sheldon does not try to make them stay.  The feeling, as they say, is mutual.  He waves a hand to dismiss them, and remains in his spot – in his introspection.

As he sits contemplating his feelings of unease, he is vaguely aware of the apartment door opening and closing, the pad of footsteps, and then a body landing none-to-gently beside him on the couch.  A blonde head tips onto his shoulder and all at once he feels that knot of tension unravel.

“Penny,” he says, her name like benediction. He names the feeling, the sense of being unsettled. “I missed you.”

He feels her relax beside him, her body settling more against his on the couch. “I missed you too, sweetie,” she whispers back.

And he understands. 

After one-thousand-five-hundred-and-forty-one hours he is finally back where he belongs.  


End file.
